Stars

“Daddy, tell me another story!” Billy exclaimed bouncing up and down on his bed. Norris sighed, Billy had been pulling this tactic on him for the past two weeks now. He felt like he was running out of clever ideas, and nothing in his head was striking him as particularly interesting.

He stared off into the clear night sky. The stars twinkled bright as if they had something to prove. Norris felt vindicated in his choice to move out to the country. His wife had complained non-stop about the inconveniences of being so far away from everything. But, his front door was unlocked and all his windows were open. He had no fear of intruders or idiots trying to bust into his house and, well, be idiots. City life was good for them, but the breeze pulsing through his house was invigorating. They were miles from their nearest neighbor and the property was so inexpensive.

“Daddy!” Billy cried out, his eyes pleading desperately for more imagery. This snapped Norris away from his reverie.

“Of course Billy,” he started, and then gave the same disclaimer he had been touting for the past fortnight once more, “but this is the last night we get to have a second story. You need your sleep.”

“Yay!” Billy was positively bursting with excitement. Norris shot him a stern glance. Billy snuggled down into his undersized bed. Norris pulled the comforter at the base of the bed and tucked it all around Billy giving a very slim chance of escape, or any movement for that matter.

“Tonight Billy I will tell you the story of the blind stargazer.”

“What’s a Stargazer?”

“A person who looks up at the stars and uses what they see to determine future events.”

“But if he is blind how can he see the stars?” Billy said thoughtfully. Norris was used to this type of questioning from his son. He encouraged it. He felt to many people his age had stopped questioning in general. That they just got as much information as the could glean from what was around them and assumed the rest without really trying to understand anything, or even worse, blindly believing what other people told them, even if it made little to no sense whatsoever. He would not raise a son who ended up like that. That would be his mark on society, or at least bringing up a more sophisticated next generation. He could really only hope at this point.

“An excellent question Billy. You see he didn’t need sight as we know it. He felt the stars in the universe. He knew exactly where each one was at any given time. No one was sure how he did it, or how he even knew in the first place, but sure as the day is long if you asked where a particular star was he would be able to point directly to it.”

“That sounds fascinating!” Billy yawned.

“It is Billy. This world is infinite and there are so many different ways that people can be. It’s just one big wonderful place filled with…” Norris looked down and saw that Billy was fast asleep. His job done for the night he crept out of the room turning off the lights as he went. As he closed the door behind him the story he was building up in his mind evaporated into the aether. It was a long night and he felt sleep pulling at himself as well. He wondered down to his room and was asleep within seconds of his head brushing his pillow.

-V-